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am starting all over again cause it keeps on cancelling on me
so I'm gonna see waht i can do and now i am going to read it as
as an ad libbing
ladies and gentleman
our author starts off the textbook directing us
see how much fear has been stoked by the media and
pointing us to the off how often fear has been stated as "communists"
are taking over
and warning of
imminent revolt by the working people
if these people, like you and me. the people are allowed to have any
say in their work life, if they gather together
and organize Over and over again throughout this text you will read about the red-baiting
and I hope you begin I am
to to challenge that statement
for it often is linked to solidarity
not already a a union concept but as
a humanisticconcept thaat we all are working for wages
and united we have a chance of claiming some of the rewards
of our labor You will also notice repeatedly that
private security, national guards, soldiers will be used to break up gatherings
workers. Many times this use of force against the people was committed when
the gathering were peaceful or
just not what the bosses would like to be happening.
Asyou read this text and readof the many hundred and thousands of folks
who have risked their lives to make a better working life for
all suffered and they have also died.
This is your heritage!
Their goal was to bring dignity to workers lives and i'm looking back at work regular that bright line
sorry their goal was good was to bring about dignity the workers
along with the improvement for better wages
and hours at work and that were only the beginning
this we've managed through workers organizations and morphed into unions continuing
as the industrialization of America began.
Through this text and the assignments
and the interactions between the other members when you do your forums
this class, you'll come to understand that labor unions were
and they still are valuable and necessary for our society.
You will read how businesses and later corporations
because that's what they managed to change into, along with most of our government
leaders felt that unions were
subversive and destructive to our country
not because it was there were strikes or even that there was communists
among them, but rather due to the solidarity -
the brother-sister relationship that all members are of a union
have for one another - solidarity because we come together as workers
having workers wanting dignity and a decent living for
ourselves and our families. And that scares
big business. Philip Dray, the author, starts us off
with the nation, uh, let's see, the nation's
earliest industrial city; Lowell Massachusetts. It is important to note that
originally this was seen by many as a great idea,
bringing young girl him from the farm okay and
from the farmlands work in the cotton mills. And this and this was Benjamin Franklin
thought this was fabulous
I think Alexander Hamilton did too, If this was a woman studies class you would read
how their earnings will be been sent home to their
brothers, their fathers or uncles but we are not going there we are in
labor studies right now
we are thelabor studies class so we will stick to why lit was good
idea that went bad. What did Benjamin Franklin and many other government officials
believe about the Lowell
type of industry when it was first began?
Read the schedule will be workers hours the duties in the religious overtones
from the boss
and then read about how they, the women,
often as young as 10 or 12 years, all
made changes but only after much
suffering, if these women/girls who at first
were so grateful to be of the farm making some money
getting some new clothes becoming citified
Did they begin to feel like members of the working class? Who with their leaders?
What was
the "Lowell fever"? How much did the labor movement owe to these
first workers how much do we?
How soon in this country did we start
the division between "native-born"
and immigrants? And we always leave out Native Americans but native-born and
immigrants. How did that play out? You will see this
over in over again whenever new wave of
people comes to America. Everything old
is new again... you can read that in the
buy American slogans that started in the 1760s
and the back to the land
communities that were popular in the northeast at the same time.
We had that in the 70s, 80s and 60s the United States.
Understanding the mills and how the workers began to see their lives changed
- their health change
and their freedom - this radicalization
of the workforce and it started with these young women
ah - due to the very nature of the work is the beginning
of the labor movement and that's why it's important to knowit!
Herealso is the inception of how companies
felt about their control of workers
and in fact how they want to control the facilities and even the
government as recently demonstrated in the
Boeing plan in Washington state
and the union concessions made there: this was just last month
You know so Boeing just says "well we don't want to give you any more raises"
even though you know we're making a lot of money and
our profits are up...we don't want to give to you anymore so what we're gonna do is we are going
to put a bid out to all the states and whoever says that they will be the cheapest place to
come to
we're gonna go there; when we go there we're gonna get rid of your jobs.
so that scare tactic worked and
I will proably be used again by more companies and the Union conceeded to a more but more pay
cut or I'll or los of more health pay.
Alright but the finishing up this week's reading
Mr. Dray focuses on the fight for the shorter
ten hour day and the different approaches by the Labor Organization
you may find yourself
agreeing with one group or the other
see if you can align those thoughts
to what is happening today with workers and corporations.
Enjoythe reading and I will see you next week - hopefully.